The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-01-07
THE PERPETUAL KINGDOM.

And in the days Of these kings shall the 6 cd
of heaven set mp II Kingdom which shall never
be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not he
left to other people, but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these Kingdoms, and
it shall stand foreyer.-Dan. liz "A.
There can be no reasonable doubt as to
what kingdom is here intended. It's de-
stinctly declared Divine Origin; the de-
claration that it shall never be destroyed
the assurance that it would absorb all
other kingdoms, and that it would stand
forever; and the entire accordance of these
declarations with the account of the
Kingdom of the Messiah in the New Tes-
lament, show beyond doubt that the
Kingdom of the Redeemer is intended.
(Which shall never be destroyed The
others would pass away. The Baby
lonian would be succeeded by the Medic
the Roman, and that in its turn by the
one which the God of heaven would set up
This would be perpetual. Nothing would
have power to overthrow it. 1t would live
III ttit ICNOIuticiIS vi ali Dbucl
and would survive them all. sit shall
never be destroyed, sit shall stand for
ever. The efforts which have been made
to destroy this kingdom have shown that
this can not be done by any human power.
Eighteen hundred years have now passed
AWAY period sufficiently long to test the
question whether it can be destroyed by
force and violence, by argument and ridi-
cule. The experiment has been fairly
made, and il it were possible that it should
be destroyed by external force, it would
have been done. 1t cannot be imagined
that more favorable circumstances for such
purpose will ever occur. The Church of
Christ has met every form of opposition
that we can conceive could be made against
it, and has survived them all Partcu-
larly it has survived the trial which has
been made in the following respects (a)
Tie Roman P0,oer The whole might of
the Roman arms, that have subdued and
crushed the world. was brought to bear
upon the kingdom of Christ to crush and
destroy it, but wholly failed. 1t cannot
be supposed that new power will ever
arise that will be more formidable to
Christianity than the Roman was. (6)
The P0eeer Of Psrsecuti0a That has been
tried i'll every way, and has failed. The
most ingenious forms of torture have been
devised to extingush this religion, and
L., FL, IL Ia. y
that persecution has only contributed ulti-
mately to the triumph of tue cause which
it was hoped to crush. (c) The I5soer
of Philosophy. The ancient philosophers
opposed it, and attempted to destroy it by
argument. This was early done by CELSIUS
and Pophyry, but it soon became apparent
that the ancient philosophy had nothing
that could extinguish the rising religion,
and not a few of the prominent philoso-
piers themselves were converted, and be-
came advocates Of the faith. I'D TIE
Rrer Of Science. Christianity had its
origin in an age when science had eompaT-
atively made but little progress, and in
country where it was almost unknown.
The sciences since have made vast adj
vances; and each one in its turn has been
appealed to by the enemies of religion, to
furnish an argument against Christianity.
Astronomy, history, the discoveries in
Egypt, the asserted antiquity of the Hin
docs, and geology, have all been employed
to overthrow the claims of the Christian
religion. and have all been compelled to
abandon the field. (e) The Poaoer Of
Ridieule. At one time it was held that
''ridicule is the test of truth, and this has
been applied unsparingly to the Christian
religion. But the religion still lives, and
it cannot be supposed that there will be
men endued with tia power of sarcasm
and wit superior to those who, with these
weapons, have made war on Christianity,
or that infidelity has any hope from that
quarter. 1t may be inferred, therefore,
that there is no external source of corrup-
ton and decay which will prevent its being
perpetual. Other kingdoms usually have;
and after few centuries at most the inter
nal corruption-the defect of the organiza-
ton develops itself, and the kingdom falls.
But nothing of this kind occurs in the
kingdom of Christ. 1t has lived now
through eighteen hundred years, through
periods of the world in which there have
been constant changes in the arts, in the
sciences, in manners, in philosophy, in
forms of government. During that time
many a system of philosophy has been SUI
perseded, and many kingdom has fallen,
but Christianity is as fresh and vigorous
as it meets each coming generation as it
ever was; and the past has demonstrated
that the enemies of the Gospel have no
reason to hope that it will become weak
by age, and will fall by its own decrepi
tude. Christianity has, at this day, anex-
tent of dominion which it never had be-
fore; and there are clearer indications that
it will spread over all the earth than ever
existed at any previous time. 1t is a
kingdom which shall never be destroyed
it shall stand forever. Nodes on DANIEL.
MEN, READ THIS.
The unprejudiced observer might we'll
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